MATH 32B
Calculus of Several Variables
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: courses 31B and 32A, with grades of C- or better. Introduction to integral calculus of several variables, line and surface integrals. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - This professor is so bad. She will destroy your GPA. Her lectures are boring, she does not care about her students. I went to her office hours to see where I can improve and she told me I can not do math. Her exams are unreasonably hard, and the class stresses students. Her homeworks take 8 hours to solve. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.
Spring 2019 - This professor is so bad. She will destroy your GPA. Her lectures are boring, she does not care about her students. I went to her office hours to see where I can improve and she told me I can not do math. Her exams are unreasonably hard, and the class stresses students. Her homeworks take 8 hours to solve. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.
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Most Helpful Review
I have had the utter misfortune of having Professor Geoffrey Mess for 32A and B. First of all, I would like to talk about his appearance. You'd think a guy with the last name Mess would make extra sure he did not look like a mess every single day of his life. His hygiene is extremely poor. He has a graying lions mane of hair and beard. He often wears dirty, obviously previously worn shirts to class. He has been known to scratch his buttocks and pubic area right in front of the class. He smells. You know, a lot of people might say, why critique his appearance? Because it matters. Two quarters of having to see and smell a man who came to class looking like a homeless man really gets to you. To compliment his poor attempt at having an appearance, Professor Mess also happens to struggle in the social aspect of life. He has trouble speaking and conveying ideas to the class. He does not understand basic small talk and I'm not thoroughly convinced he has ever had a friend or a significant other to practice any sort of simple human conversation. Mess has been vocal about his hatred for computers, the internet, or any gagdets. He feels so strongly about this, that he likes to simply ignore that the internet is the way students find out about their grades and keep them waiting four weeks after fall quarter has ended to finally reveal whether they have passed his rigorous class or not. He does not respond to his email, not even if its the TA. Therefore the TAs are totally out of the loop and must ask the students if there is homework, what they have learned in class, etc. Also Mess does not often remember to give students the homework on the day that he is supposed to. Mess is a genius (although somehow he mucks up simple algebra sometimes). He obviously thinks about mathematics every minute and fails to realize that 99.99 percent of humans do not do this. Thus he teaches in a way that is extremely difficult for the average college student to grasp. His lectures usually go over everyones head, and he seems stumped when he asks the class a question and there are seconds of silence. Then he has the audacity to ask "Everybody get that?" after he has explained something extremely complicated in an extremely poor way. The fact is that almost everybody did not "get that." The poor midterm grades should be a hint of that. His midterms sometimes contain trivial proofs and memorization rather than honing math skills. As expected the curve is pretty low and he guarantees 23 percent A- or better and 58 percent B- or better. Which is nice since most of the class fails the tests anyway. Mess is just an awful, disgusting human being. No, I'm not bitter, I'm passing his classes just fine. I just feel bad for anyone who must experience this horrible man. He is simply an awful professor in every way and does not respect his students at all. I have checked and it looks like UCLA has had enough complaints to remove him from teaching, at least for spring quarter.
I have had the utter misfortune of having Professor Geoffrey Mess for 32A and B. First of all, I would like to talk about his appearance. You'd think a guy with the last name Mess would make extra sure he did not look like a mess every single day of his life. His hygiene is extremely poor. He has a graying lions mane of hair and beard. He often wears dirty, obviously previously worn shirts to class. He has been known to scratch his buttocks and pubic area right in front of the class. He smells. You know, a lot of people might say, why critique his appearance? Because it matters. Two quarters of having to see and smell a man who came to class looking like a homeless man really gets to you. To compliment his poor attempt at having an appearance, Professor Mess also happens to struggle in the social aspect of life. He has trouble speaking and conveying ideas to the class. He does not understand basic small talk and I'm not thoroughly convinced he has ever had a friend or a significant other to practice any sort of simple human conversation. Mess has been vocal about his hatred for computers, the internet, or any gagdets. He feels so strongly about this, that he likes to simply ignore that the internet is the way students find out about their grades and keep them waiting four weeks after fall quarter has ended to finally reveal whether they have passed his rigorous class or not. He does not respond to his email, not even if its the TA. Therefore the TAs are totally out of the loop and must ask the students if there is homework, what they have learned in class, etc. Also Mess does not often remember to give students the homework on the day that he is supposed to. Mess is a genius (although somehow he mucks up simple algebra sometimes). He obviously thinks about mathematics every minute and fails to realize that 99.99 percent of humans do not do this. Thus he teaches in a way that is extremely difficult for the average college student to grasp. His lectures usually go over everyones head, and he seems stumped when he asks the class a question and there are seconds of silence. Then he has the audacity to ask "Everybody get that?" after he has explained something extremely complicated in an extremely poor way. The fact is that almost everybody did not "get that." The poor midterm grades should be a hint of that. His midterms sometimes contain trivial proofs and memorization rather than honing math skills. As expected the curve is pretty low and he guarantees 23 percent A- or better and 58 percent B- or better. Which is nice since most of the class fails the tests anyway. Mess is just an awful, disgusting human being. No, I'm not bitter, I'm passing his classes just fine. I just feel bad for anyone who must experience this horrible man. He is simply an awful professor in every way and does not respect his students at all. I have checked and it looks like UCLA has had enough complaints to remove him from teaching, at least for spring quarter.
Most Helpful Review
Professor Micheli is an excellent professor. Very organized and always punctual with posting up homework and midterm grades. He also posts up all his lecture notes before the final and they were helpful in studying for the final (although many people including myself got owned) His tests are very difficult. First midterm was standard, but second midterm and the final were serial killers. They were nothing like the homework, and super conceptual. He teaches well, but his tests are just impossibly hard. To do well in his course, you have to truly understand the material and concepts. His classes are difficult, but he tries his best to have as many office hours as possible and will even meet with you on individual basis if you inquire so. He is a great guy, but be sure to really study and know your math if you take his classes.
Professor Micheli is an excellent professor. Very organized and always punctual with posting up homework and midterm grades. He also posts up all his lecture notes before the final and they were helpful in studying for the final (although many people including myself got owned) His tests are very difficult. First midterm was standard, but second midterm and the final were serial killers. They were nothing like the homework, and super conceptual. He teaches well, but his tests are just impossibly hard. To do well in his course, you have to truly understand the material and concepts. His classes are difficult, but he tries his best to have as many office hours as possible and will even meet with you on individual basis if you inquire so. He is a great guy, but be sure to really study and know your math if you take his classes.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - Alexey is a beautiful, funny man and a really engaging lecturer! His lectures were always clear and helpful, and he would often crack jokes during class. He definitely explained every concept very clearly and would answer student questions very thoroughly. The homework was just problems straight from the textbook and they weren't too bad. His tests were alright, too; the first midterm was a little difficult but the grading policy let you drop a midterm, and the final was very reasonable. Overall, I definitely recommend his class!
Fall 2017 - Alexey is a beautiful, funny man and a really engaging lecturer! His lectures were always clear and helpful, and he would often crack jokes during class. He definitely explained every concept very clearly and would answer student questions very thoroughly. The homework was just problems straight from the textbook and they weren't too bad. His tests were alright, too; the first midterm was a little difficult but the grading policy let you drop a midterm, and the final was very reasonable. Overall, I definitely recommend his class!
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Radko was really really nice and was extremely willing to help, but I don't think her teaching methods were very effective for this particular course. I like the fact that she did example problems in class, but she fell short on explaining the concepts, thus resulting in the TAs explaining the concepts to us. Because each and every problem is different, it would have helped if she did proofs or explained the concepts more thoroughly so we can figure out how to do any type of problem. Her quizzes and midterms were really easy, and the homework wasn't exactly hard, so basically a lot of people, even the people who just memorized the steps rather than know the concepts, did well on those. However, her final was very, very hard, which was really unexpected because her midterms and quizzes were so easy. There were a lot of nasty calculations and a lot of confusion because there were so many theorems to know that when it comes to the problems, it's hard to figure out which theorem you want to use. Even if she allowed us to have a notecard during the final, it didn't really help much. I personally do not trust her practice midterms and finals because her solutions always have some sort of calculation errors, which leads me to question whether her method was wrong or whether I just did it wrong. I was rather disappointed in this class because I actually liked the material that was taught, but I don't think Professor Radko prepared all of us adequately for her final, which was ridiculously hard.
Professor Radko was really really nice and was extremely willing to help, but I don't think her teaching methods were very effective for this particular course. I like the fact that she did example problems in class, but she fell short on explaining the concepts, thus resulting in the TAs explaining the concepts to us. Because each and every problem is different, it would have helped if she did proofs or explained the concepts more thoroughly so we can figure out how to do any type of problem. Her quizzes and midterms were really easy, and the homework wasn't exactly hard, so basically a lot of people, even the people who just memorized the steps rather than know the concepts, did well on those. However, her final was very, very hard, which was really unexpected because her midterms and quizzes were so easy. There were a lot of nasty calculations and a lot of confusion because there were so many theorems to know that when it comes to the problems, it's hard to figure out which theorem you want to use. Even if she allowed us to have a notecard during the final, it didn't really help much. I personally do not trust her practice midterms and finals because her solutions always have some sort of calculation errors, which leads me to question whether her method was wrong or whether I just did it wrong. I was rather disappointed in this class because I actually liked the material that was taught, but I don't think Professor Radko prepared all of us adequately for her final, which was ridiculously hard.
Most Helpful Review
Professor Ralston is a adorable guy. He has the energy should not appear in his age. Extreme easy midterm but hard final. Exams relevant to the book and you dont even go to the lecture. The grading policy is fine as long as you get 80+ overall, your are guarantee a A-. I did every single problem from the book and got A in the end.
Professor Ralston is a adorable guy. He has the energy should not appear in his age. Extreme easy midterm but hard final. Exams relevant to the book and you dont even go to the lecture. The grading policy is fine as long as you get 80+ overall, your are guarantee a A-. I did every single problem from the book and got A in the end.
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